Recently I watched the 2005 movie  “Just Like Heaven” staring Reese Witherspoon and Mark Ruffalo.  This charming sort of Sleeping Beauty story was loosely adapted from French author Marc Levy’s first novel If Only It Were True.  Set against the backdrop of San Francisco, fate crosses the paths of Elizabeth Masterson, a dedicated young doctor and landscape architect David Abbott.

At the crux of this romantic tale is the fact that Elizabeth was in a serious auto accident and has spent months in a coma in the hospital where she used to work.  Her sister puts her furnished apartment up for rent to cover the cost of her hospital expenses.

David, suffering the pains of the death of his bride two years ago searches for a new place to live in an attempt to escape his past.  He ends up renting Elizabeth’s apartment.  Soon after he moves in Elizabeth wakes to an awareness outside of her body but doesn’t know who she is, who her family is or what type of work she did, all she remembers is where she lived.

Her spirit returns to the apartment where she finds David fighting the depression from his past.  An interesting aspect of the story is that he is the only one who can see or hear her.  At first there is a great deal of conflict and discord between them since each feels that they live there alone.  Eventually they end their battle with each other and band together to find out whom she is and why it is that only he can see or hear her.  Ultimately they fall in love and it is this bond that saves her life and allows David to face the pain and sorrow of his past.

The story is about the importance of hope for the human soul.   When the difficulties of life make the ‘going get tough’ there are times when the platitude “the tough get going” plainly isn’t enough.  It doesn’t matter if the difficulties are from loss of love, of family, pending financial ruin or the apparent death of a dream, the fading and dematerializing of hope can begin a slow spiraling decent into the depths of despair.

We need to have hope to be able to weather life’s difficulties and faith that what we hope for will become a reality.  In The Littlest Dragon and the Princess, Leizu has lost hope that she will be able to counter the demands of Prince Luan and solemnly prepares for a dreadful future.  It is only because of the persistence and dedication of the Littlest Dragon that a solution to their dilemma is discovered and the princess finds hope, faith and happiness again.